Cloudstreet by Tim Winton wins number one in Top 100 Australian Books poll

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Cloudstreet by Tim Winton wins number one in Top 100 Australian Books poll

20 October 2026

Listeners of ABC Radio National recently voted Cloudstreet, the 1991 novel by Fremantle based Australian author Tim Winton, to the top spot in the Top 100 Australian Books poll.

Cloudstreet won a number of literary awards, including the 1992 Miles Franklin prize for Australian literature, and went on to be adapted for stage and television. It is quite the yarn:

After two separate catastrophes, two very different families leave the country for the bright lights of Perth. The Lambs are industrious, united and — until God seems to turn his back on their boy Fish — religious. The Pickleses are gamblers, boozers, fractious, and unlikely landlords.

Chance, hardship and the war force them to swallow their dignity and share a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet. Over the next twenty years they struggle and strive, laugh and curse, come apart and pull together under the same roof, and try as they can to make their lives.

Other titles among the top ten include The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden, and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

The 2025 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists

19 August 2025

Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser, winner of this year’s Stellar Prize, Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane, and Juice by Tim Winton — which I’m presently reading — are among titles shortlisted in the fiction category of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

Award categories also include non-fiction, Australian history, poetry, children’s literature, and young adult. Six-hundred-and-forty-five entries were received this year, indicating Australian writers are busy. The winners will be named on Monday 29 September 2025, at a ceremony in Canberra.

Juice: the new cli-fi novel by Australian author Tim Winton

2 October 2024

Juice is the latest novel by Australian author Tim Winton, which was published yesterday. From this synopsis, Juice sounds like it blends elements of the Max Mad saga, with Winton’s own environmental and climate change concerns:

Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place – middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they’re not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.

I heard Winton speak about six-and-a-half years ago at the Sydney premiere of Breath, a film based on his 2009, Miles Franklin award winning, novel of the same name. The feature was directed by, and starred, Australian actor Simon Baker, also present that evening.

Winton was one of the screenwriters of the Breath film adaptation. That’s a smart move, get the author of the book being adapted, to co-write the screenplay. Where possible of course. Quite a number of Winton’s books have been made into movies, so it seems like there’s a good chance Juice will follow suit.

Lisa Berryman, Tim Winton, inducted to ABIA Hall of Fame

10 May 2023

Australian authors Lisa Berryman and Tim Winton were yesterday admitted to the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) Hall of Fame, for their decades of contribution to Australian literature. Berryman was recognised with the Pixie O’Harris Award for her work as a publisher of children’s and young adult titles, while Winton received the Lloyd O’Neil Award.

Tim Winton critical of fossil fuel industry arts sponsorship

28 February 2022

Perth based Australian writer Tim Winton, and four times Miles Franklin Award winner, has spoken out against the over reliance the local arts community has on sponsorship from the fossil fuel industry, during a speech at Perth festival’s Writers Weekend.

“I do want us to acknowledge how things still work here … how captive [the arts and cultural sectors] are,” he told the Writers Weekend audience. “I suspect that to some of the folks who were involved in decisions around that production, all of them good people I’m sure, the dissonance just wasn’t audible. And that just shows you how normal it is, how safe the fossil giants still feel here in the wild west.”

Winton singled out a performance of Become Ocean, an orchestral composition by John Luther Adams, scheduled for Saturday 5 March at the Festival, which has already attracted the ire of a local activist arts group on account of sponsorship arrangements for the performance.

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Australian literature, Tim Winton

Simon Baker, Tim Winton, Margaret Pomeranz, others, speak at Breath Sydney premiere

26 April 2018

A panel discussion with five individuals seated in front of a large screen displaying the promotional poster for the film

Photo by John Lampard.

Earlier this evening I went to the Sydney premiere of Breath, trailer, the new film by Australian actor and director, Simon Baker (Instagram page).

The screenplay was based on the 2008 novel of the same name, by Australian author Tim Winton, who collaborated with Baker, and Gerard Lee, to adapt the novel for film.

Following the screening, Baker, Winton, and cast members Elizabeth Debicki, Ben Spence, and Samson Coulter, joined Australian film critic Margaret Pomeranz, to discuss the film. Surfing plays a big part in the story, with Winton amusing the audience with a number of board riding stories.

It was great, by the way, to be back (I keep saying that) at the Ritz Cinema in Sydney’s east. Thanks to Roadshow Australia for the invitation.

NOTE: This post was drafted on 26 April 2018 but published on 19 October 2026.